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SCP-3733 Pathogen ? low confidence
SCP-3733
Expected annual
$5.4M
One-time setup
$60.7M
Annual recurring
$5.3M
Personnel
17
Initial capital costs are dominated by specialized lab upgrades and a large contingency reserve (total one-time ~ $60.7M); annual operations are driven by staffing, research, and facility upkeep (~ $5.30M/yr). Main drivers: BSL upgrade option, contingency reserve, and ongoing multidisciplinary research and secure operations.
🏗️ One-Time Capital Costs Total: $60.7M
Contingency Reserve $52.5M
[#17] Large contingency reserve for major containment breach / eradication campaigns (midpoint of provided range used as planning buffer).
Initial Research And Lab Setup $5.0M
[#7] BSL upgrade: baseline planning uses a BSL-3 upgrade midpoint estimate; BSL-4 is possible but substantially more expensive (not included in this base figure).
Equipment $2.2M
[#2, #3, #4, #6, #13, #15, #16] HVAC/filtration (#2), automated supply/waste/robotics (#3), memetic-safe sensor hardware and data-limiter (#4), secure data storage/vault servers (#6), autoclave/install (#13), backup generator/UPS install (#15), and mobile isolation/transport unit (#16).
Facilities $720K
[#1, #5, #23] Containment suite construction (#1), Faraday/shielding & isolated infrastructure (#5), and physical perimeter upgrades (#23) combined as structural/build work.
Initial Legal Cover $150K
[#21] Initial legal/ethical/cover-story setup and documentation to justify containment and manage external legal exposure.
Memetic Sop Development $125K
[#11] Initial memetic-safe SOP development and initial training materials/equipment.
Secure Death Procedure $35K
[#25] Secure mortuary/disposal setup cost per event (budgeted as a one-time validated procedure capability).
🔄 Annual Recurring Costs Total: $5.3M/yr
Staff Wages $2.1M/yr
[#8, #9, #10] Security staffing (8 guards) (#8), medical staffing/on-call physician and nurses (#9), and the salary portion of the scientific research team (split from total research budget) (#10).
Research And Monitoring $1.4M/yr
[#10, #22] Research consumables and equipment operation (sequencing, imaging, animal models) split from research team budget (#10), plus ongoing surveillance/public-health screening programs (#22).
Containment Overhead $691K/yr
[#27] Program overhead (10–20%); calculated here as 15% of recurring operating costs (applied to recurring subtotal excluding this overhead).
Cover Story And Legal $438K/yr
[#20, #21] Secure communications, censorship/information-control operations and recurring legal/PR/ethical budget (#20) plus recurring legal/cover costs (#21).
Facilities Maintenance $180K/yr
[#14, #23] Energy and continuous HVAC/power draw (#14) plus perimeter systems maintenance (#23).
Staffing Overhead $90K/yr
[#19] Extra hiring, burnout mitigation, counseling, paid leave and accelerated background checks due to memetic risk.
Logistics And Transport $88K/yr
[#16] Recurring drills, upkeep and operating costs for mobile quarantine/transport assets and emergency response logistics (#16).
Replacement And Maintenance $70K/yr
[#24] Service contracts, spare parts and preventative maintenance for automation and robotics.
Biohazard Disposal $60K/yr
[#13] Recurring regulated waste disposal and contracted incineration / destruction services.
Memetic Training $50K/yr
[#11] Recurring memetic protection refresher training, psychological screening and SOP refreshers.
Supplies And Consumables $45K/yr
[#12] PPE, decontamination consumables, clinical disposables and replacement HVAC filters.
Backup Power And Fuel $35K/yr
[#15] Fuel, generator testing and UPS maintenance to support continuous containment systems.
Audits $35K/yr
[#26] Periodic independent audits and compliance reviews for memetic-safety and containment integrity.
Long Term Care $19K/yr
[#18] Ongoing daily necessities and specialist humane-care costs for SCP-3733-1.
⚡ Cost Scenarios
📊 Baseline (baseline) $5.3M/yr
94.9% probability / year
Normal operational year with no major incidents; routine research, maintenance, and operations only.
steady_containment no_equipment_failures
🚨 Minor Incident $5.8M/yr
5.0% probability / year +$500K vs baseline
Localized containment breach or equipment failure requiring temporary response, extra decontamination, and short-term research scale-up.
localized_contamination robotics_or_filter_failure
🚨 Major Breach $30.3M/yr
0.1% probability / year +$25.0M vs baseline
Major containment failure or unexpected epidemiological spread requiring large-scale public-health response and significant use of contingency reserves.
systemic_containment_failure widespread_infection
👥 Personnel 17 total
Role Count Notes
Security Officer / MTF Agent 8 [#8] Rotational 24/7 security staffing (8 guards to cover shifts and leave).
Research Scientist 6 [#10] Multidisciplinary research team (virology, neurology, memetics, bioinformatics, lab techs) whose salary portion is included in staff_wages.
Medical Officer 1 [#9] Part-time physician / clinical lead for containment medical oversight.
Nurse / EMT 2 [#9] Rotating nursing/EMT staff for on-call clinical response.
📋 Confidence Notes
Significant uncertainty in vector, required biosafety level (BSL-3 vs BSL-4), and contingency sizing produces low confidence; many line items are wide-range estimates and scenario probabilities are expert judgments.
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